268 C.U. Shepard on a Meteoric Iron? from N. Carolina. 
with the analysis of meteorites, but with the study of silicon and 
its more difficult compounds. I accordingly forwarded to him 
an outline of my results, accompanied by a few grammes of the | 
iron, and solicited his opinion upon the subject. He had the 
goodness to have an analysis performed for me under his eye, 
and to engage in some experiments himself upon the material 
sent. 
The analysis afforded the following result: 
stom, * - 87°10 
Silicon, - - - - 10°60 
Graphite, - : - - 0-40 | 
98°10 | 
_ Of which he remarks, that without claiming for it the most = | 
rigorous exactness, it is sufficiently accurate to show, that the | 
composition of the mass is essentially a compound of Fe°Si, or 
Tron, - : - - - 88°80 
Silicon, é - - - 11°20 
(Silicic acid being assumed =Si O°). 
He then observes, that it subsequently occurred to him to ex- 
amine the precipitated peroxyd of iron for phosphoric acid; and 
that he detected therein, a strongly pronounced proof of its exist- 
ence. This discovery induced him further to say, that the pres- 
ence of phosphorus points to its meteoric origin, notwithstand- 
ing the absence of nickel in the ; 
I have since made a determination of the phosphorus, and 
found it to amount to 1:312 p.c¢.; and combining the numbers 
of the calculated result upon the iron as being composed of 
Fe* Si, and employing therewith Wohler’s determination of the 
carbon and my own of the phosphorus, the present statement 1s 
believed to be a close approximation to the composition of the 
Rutherfordton mass: ; 
on, . - . - 87-279 
Silicon, - - - 11-008 
Phosphorus, - . : - 1312 
Carbon, - - - - 0-400 
Magnesium, - - - - trace 
99-999 
We recur once more to the question of its origin. It is ad- 
mitted that it was found in a region containing iron ores, and 
that the manufacture of this metal had been carried on, though , — 
toa very limited extent, at the distance of ten or fifteen miles 
from the place of its discovery. It is with difficulty supposable 
that so considerable an unknown 12 
